My girlfriend and I are traveling in Bavaria in June. We are staying in Munich 6/26 - 6/28, and staying in garmisch-Partenkirchen 6/28 through 7/1. While in Munich we hope to travel to Berchtesgaden (to see the "eagles nest") in addition to our train travel there and back, we also are planning on our travel to and from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Munich. This will be 3 to 4 days of separate train travel. We have been trying to research the Bayern pass but sadly we have not gotten definite answers. Is there a pass that covers the Bayern region for several (separate) days (as a twin pass), all I have seen is either passes for unlimited travel in a single day and passes that cover all of Germany for multiple days not just Bayern (which is far more expensive). Thanks for the help!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
The Bayern-Ticket is valid for a single day, from 9 AM in the morning on workdays, or from midnight on a weekend or holiday, until 3 AM the following morning . I know of no multi-day pass for Bavaria, but the Bayern-Ticket is easy enough to purchase from an automat in the morning before you travel. The automats also allow you to purchase in advance, so you could purchase for all your travel days at once. I have never done that; I always purchase the Ticket just before travel. However, I think prepurchase would be pointless since they are non-refundable and if you changed you travel plans you'd have to eat the ticket. If you are only traveling in Bavaria and don't mind 2nd class on regional trains, a German Rail pass would just be more expensive. Most of your travel, Munich to Garmisch-P, for instance, will be on regional trains anyway. For Munich to Berchtesgaden, you could take an express train or a regional train from Munich to Freilassing, but the express train is only about ½ hr faster, and the rest of the way, from Freilassing to Berchtesgaden, is by regional train anyway. With a Bayern-Ticket, your bus from Berchtesgaden Hbf to Obersalzberg is included, but the special mountain buses up the mountain are not. I believe you can get a small discount for the train or cable car to the top of Zugspitze by showing the Bayern-Ticket.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
You can get a pretty good explanation about the Bayern-Ticket here. Click on "Bayern". Note: the English version of the Bahn page has an error. The price of the Bayern-Ticket Single (for one person) is now €21 (from an automat, €23 from the counter).
Posted by
Paradise
7072 posts
If you overnight in Berchtesgaden, you'll have free transit on certain bus lines with the "Kurkarte" you get from hour hosts, and discounted tickets to Salzburg: http://www.berchtesgaden.de/en/mobility The Berchtesgaden Garmisch-Partenkirchen visitors card you'll get from your hosts there offers free city transit and other goodies: http://www.gapa.de/visitors_card/ If you traveled every day w/ a Bayern ticket - 6 Bayern tickets for 6 days of travel - the two of you together would pay 174€ total for all your travel there. You can't touch a railpass for that. Of course, you'll probably only need a Bayern ticket on 3-4 separate days at most, so your costs seem very reasonable to me.